Interpretation and Julius Caesar II

Interpretation II

Bill Long

Brutus and Interpreation

Interpretation also is the means by which Brutus is induced to join the conspiracy. After his long conversation with Cassius in 1.2., Brutus was nearly ready to capitulate, but he held back. Cassius decided that the way to "close the deal" with Brutus was to have letters written and to have one thrown in at Brutus' door that would encourage Brutus to act. When 2.1. opens and Brutus takes his place in his study in the middle of the night, his servant Lucius finds the letter left at Cassius' instigation. Far from explicitly suggesting that Brutus ought to join the conspiracy, the letter says, cryptically,

"Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake, and see thyself!/ Shall Rome, etc. Speak, strike, redress! (2.1.46-48)."

In order to establish some meaning for the letter, Brutus realizes his need to interpret: "Thus must I piece it out: (2.1.51)." Just as Casca filled in the void in Cassius explanation by picking up on the word "man," so Brutus fills in the epistolary lacunae by quoting words that Cassius has given him in 1.2.

Brutus says,

"'Shall Rome, etc.' Thus must I piece it out: Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? (2.1.51-52)."

Notice how in these last words he is picking up on Cassius words of bitterness and challenge in 1.2. In that scene Cassius drove home the point three times in the space of five lines that now is the only time in the 700 year history of Rome that only one man was famous or when the wide walks of Rome encompassed only one man or, more arrestingly, that there was "room" in "Rome" (the words were homophones for Shakespeare) for "one only man (1.2.153-57)." The words sunk deeply into Brutus' consciousness, for when he read the letter, and the letter was missing words, he quickly filled in the missing content with words Cassius planted in his mind. The planted letter is complemented by the planted words in Brutus' brain.

Conclusion

There are so many things "out there" to interpret. Cicero says that people may construe things against their true meaning. But construe we must. And, as we construe, maybe we are pawns like Casca and Brutus, who think they are coming to their own conclusions but are simply being led along by the wily Cassius.